VibesHub: September 2019

Recap of INTERNAL MEDICINE FILM FESTIVAL 2019 of SLMC-GC: Artful Advocacies

by Admin - 07:07

YouTube: Review of 12 DAYS TO DESTINY: Bonding over Balut

by Admin - 17:07

September 29, 2019

Robert S. Tan of Blade Auto Center began his movie-producing endeavors last year with the film "Dito Lang Ako" (MY REVIEW). This was an inter-generational love story which was prominently set in the premises of a Blade Auto Center branch. This year, perhaps because of the financial challenge of releasing a film in theaters, Blade decided that their second feature film "12 Days to Destiny" will be released for the public to watch for free on YouTube instead. This week it just breached 1M views.

Daniel (Akihiro Blanco), a salesman in a Blade store, was also a student in Engineering. One day, pretty Camille (Mary Joy Apostol) came in the store looking for made-to-order seat covers, and Daniel assisted her with the transaction. While snacking on balut and other encounters in and out of the store, Daniel and Camille get closer together. However, to complicate matters, a guy named T always called Camille, while Daniel's ex-girlfriend Cat made an unexpected comeback.

The whole movie (LINK) was only 56 minutes long, an easy watch. The boy-meets-girl plot is simple and familiar. The cinematography was quite basic, with mostly regular camera angles, with occasional use of drones for overhead shots. The editing was also basic, and the transition of scenes were rather in choppy episodes. The musical soundtrack consisted of some upbeat romantic songs of the acoustic styles which are very typical among rom-com films about the millennial set currently.

However, despite all of that simplicity, this movie does not fail to deliver on its main purposes for being made. First, it worked as an advertisement for Blade Auto Center., as the main setting and employer of the lead character. It showcased the wide array of car parts and accessories Blade carried, as well as personalized service Blade provides its customers. It also showed that there is close camaraderie among the boss and employees in their company, which be useful in staff recruitment.

As a rom-com, there was very good chemistry between the two main actors, as well as earnest performances as individuals for both of them. Akihiro Blanco played up his wholesome boy-next-door charms. Mary Joy Apostol, in a wide departure from her acclaimed debut film "Birdshot" (Mikhail Red, 2016), proved that she can also play it cute and light. As couple, the two can generate romantic thrills, even if you are just watching this from the limited screen of your smart phone.

This short movie written and directed by CJ Santos provides a quick fix for your rom-com cravings -- cute, cheesy, shallow and amusing -- just as rom-com junkies like it. Because of the success of this first feature in #BladeStories on YouTube, Blade is planning to complete a trilogy about Daniel and Camille's love story. 5/10.

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Review of #JOWABLE: Distressingly Desperate

by Admin - 17:37

September 28, 2019

Mid last year, there was a video that spread on social media entitled "#Jowable" (LINK) by filmmaker Darryl Yap. In this 6-minute clip, a young woman entered a church drunk, and started to question God why she had no boyfriend since birth when it seemed clear that she was "jowable" (or "good girlfriend material" in street lingo). This year, Yap himself expanded on that premise and made it into a full-length film.

Ever since she was a little girl, Elsa Mangahas (Kim Molina) already dreamed of having a boyfriend with whom she can share her lunch with. However, even as she became an adult now, she never had a boyfriend her whole life and she was very miserable for it.

Her close friends, Karissa (Cai Cortez), Facundo (Chad Kinis) and Nuna (Jobelyn Manuel, the girl in the original video), her classmates since grade school and now co-workers in an events company, all had their partners in life already. Even her mother Liberty (Kakai Bautista) had a boyfriend, this current one Dmitri (Fabio Ide) was her 16th.

Everything built up to that moment when a very drunk Elsa argued, challenged and bargained with God in the church (the very scene we had seen before in Yap's initial short film). Will Elsa's empty love life change after her major cathartic session with God?

Kim Molina is fresh off her raunchy iWant feature "Momol Nights" which also depicted a sort of similar dilemma for her character. This stage actress and singer whom I first knew playing the lead roles in musicals like "Rak of Aegis" and "Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady" is now a full-fledged movie, and a sex-comedy princess at that. Molina is one of those rare actresses who can pull off those naughty lines in such a cute tongue-in-cheek manner so that it does not come off as totally offensive, even for conservative viewers.

Kakai Bautista who played Elsa's ex-prostitute mother, who had a revolving door of hunky boyfriends. Bautista played it so cheap and trashy here, but can't not love her despite these traits. That mother-daughter breakdown scene together was fully of tearful dialogue, but it was simply too hilarious not to laugh out loud.

Another notable scene was that inebriated conversation of Elsa with Sister Katrina during a field trip, which was chockful of sexual double-entendres, shocking coming from a nun. However, with the way Candy Pangilinan played the tactlessly frank nun, the scene turned out delightful and funny despite the inherent wrongness of it all.

There was a character of the strict Ms. Soledad Manalili (played by Suzette Ranillo) who caught the third-grader Elsa kissing the anatomy model in school nicknamed Tommy. Because of her dedication to her profession, Ms. Manalili never got married and instead just had her cross-stitching and pack of shih-tzus. With this character, the film made a detour of sorts to pay tribute to teachers. It was sentimental yes, but felt off-tangent.

The original short video by Yap was very popular among the millennial set for its extreme ranting soliloquy about having no boyfriend, in a church of all places. However, it was also criticized for its use of profane language inappropriate for the sacred setting. But it was exactly this shocking disrespectful nature that led to its viral status, which now led to this feature film. The film had more such scenes with similar-style writing by Yap throughout its choppy run -- very irreverent and uncouth, yet with sincere insights if you listen closely. 6/10.

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Review of DOWNTON ABBEY: Anxious Aristocrats

by Admin - 08:20

September 27, 2010

I had long heard of "Downton Abbey," but I never had the chance to watch even a single episode of this beloved British TV series which aired from 2010 to 2015. When announcements of a movie version came out, I wanted to go watch it because I liked these British aristocratic period drama movies, like those much-missed Merchant-Ivory films of the late 80s and 90s. However, I was apprehensive that I may not be able to follow the story if it referred to past story lines or characters.

It was 1927. The Crawley family along with whole Downton Abbey household was thrown into excitement when a letter arrived announcing that King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) were visiting their estate as part of the royal tour around the country. Among the masters, there was the issue of Dowager Countess of Grantham Violet Crawley and her falling out with her cousin Lady Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), who was coming as the Queen's lady-in-waiting. Among the servants, there was a turf war between the proud Downton Abbey staff and the arrogant royal staff members with fancy titles who were boxing them out of serving the royal guests.

Even if I knew nothing about any of the Downton Abbey characters, I can see why they had legions of devoted fans. These characters, both masters and servants alike, were all very personable and likable. Even if I had never met them before, their personalities were so distinct, it was as if I already knew them already.

The Crawley family was led by the Dowager Countess of Grantham Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith). Her witty zingers were delightful, and, with Smith's revered stature, may just earn her an Oscar nomination. Her son Robert (Hugh Bonneville) was the Earl of Grantham. His wife was Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), and they had two adult daughters Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Edith (Laura Carmichael) and their husbands Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode) and Bertie Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton) respectively.

There was also Tom Branson (Allen Leech), Robert's widower son-in-law and former chauffeur. Of this set, it was Branson who figured in three significant side stories, one about an assassination attempt, another about a contemplated separation, and a third about a clueless heiress.

Their household staff was led by Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) who was reinstated as head butler for this movie, and his wife, the former Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) was head housekeeper. John Bates (Brendan Coyle) was Sir Robert's valet and his wife Anna (Joanne Froggatt), now Lady Mary's personal maid. Their bickering with Mr. Wilson (David Haig), the Royal Page of the Backstairs; Mrs. Webb (Richenda Carey), the Queen's Royal Dresser and Monsieur Courbet (Phillipe Spall), the royal chef, provided much of the comedy in the film.

Thomas Barrow (Robert James Collier) was the butler, but for this movie was given his own individual side plot about his being a closeted gay man.

The film reminded me a lot of "Gosford Park" (Robert Altman, 2001) where the contrasting stories of the rich lords were being told in parallel with those of their servants. Both screenplays were written by the same person, Julian Fellowes. He actually won an Oscar for his original screenplay of "Gosford Park." He expanded this idea to create "Downton Abbey" the TV series, and now this film.

The pace of the story telling by American director Michael Engler was at just the right clip as would be expected of a multi-threaded tale about British gentry, their genteel lifestyles and idiosyncratic foibles. The flow of the film was quite steady and even (which others may call "stuffy"), with a just a couple of detours out of the estate for some excitement (which I found somewhat off-tangent).

Being of a decidedly dry manner of speech and wry sense of humor, this type of film is an acquired taste and would probably appeal more to the baby boomers and Generation X. The Anglophile in me enjoyed it a lot, even without seeing the original series. 8/10.

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Review of HUSTLERS: Victimized by Vamps

by Admin - 05:06

September 26, 2019

In 2007, Asian-American beauty Dorothy worked at a strip club as the exotic Destiny. However, she felt she was not making enough money to support her and her grandmother. She was stunned by the alluring pole-dancing style of the Latina star dancer Ramona, who consistently took home a sizable amount worth of tips. Ramona generously shared the secrets of her trade to Destiny, and they became very close friends and popular dance partners at the club.

Then the 2008 Wall Street crash happened, and the strip club closed down along with the investment firms. The girls needed to find another lucrative way to make a buck. But this time out of financial desperation, they had to go beyond mere stripping. Ramona initiated a plan of drugging their client just enough to fork over their credit card and give them their passwords so the girls can bleed the men dry.

I was very surprised how daring Constance Wu was as an actress for accepting a role like this. I first knew her as the mother in the TV show "Fresh Off the Boat" (2015 to present). Then just last year, she became a bonafide movie star when she starred in the major box office hit "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018). This year, she totally went against her usual wholesome mode to play a stripper -- wearing heavy make-up, two-piece bikinis, gaudy accessories and performing lap dances for her clients.

Even if technically Wu played the lead role in this film, she was overshadowed by the gorgeous Jennifer Lopez, who definitely stole the whole film away by totally owning the role of strip goddess, Ramona. Her very first dance routine on the pole was mesmerizing, you just can't take your eyes off her as she slinked her flexible body around with such elegant pizzazz. When Ramona was teaching Destiny the basic pole moves, JLo again was very captivating with her graceful strength and sexy skills.

Now as far as JLo's sure-thing Oscar nomination in the Supporting Actress category, the buzz is really loud I won't be surprised if it comes to pass come awards season. She is perfectly cast in that role -- her face, her body, her dancing -- all looked so right. The dramatic performance per se was not exactly spectacular enough to get excited about, but JLo's portrayal of Ramona is eye-catching and memorable nonetheless.

The main story of "Hustlers" went beyond that its male counterpart "Magic Mike" when the girls actually ventured into the world of crime. Ramona and Destiny were said to be making so much money in 2007 ("even more than a brain surgeon makes" according to her narration), one presumed they could already live off those earnings. I guess they just splurged to glamour stuff and never thought to save up. I didn't see Dorothy as that type of person, so I do not buy this this unfortunate turn of events at all. This is not women-empowering at all. 5/10.

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Review of AD ASTRA: Facing Father and Future

by Admin - 08:17

September 24, 2019

This is one of those films where the elegant title and poster alone already had me sold that I should go watch this movie. I only had the general idea that this was going to be set in space. I like this genre of motion picture, as films like "Gravity," "The Martian" and "Interstellar" all made it to the top of my yearend lists. I purposely never watched any trailer nor read any article about it, so that I can go in unaware of what the story was all about.

This film was set in the "near future" -- when humans can live and populate settlements on the moon and Mars. Astronaut Capt. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) was sent to Mars to participate in the search for his long-lost father H. Clifford McBride. The elder McBride was the leader of the Lima Project, which aimed to search for intelligent life forms in outer space. Now, it was believed that this Lima Project, marooned in Neptune for 16 years now, was the cause of deadly power surges happening across the solar system.

The quietly dignified performance of Brad Pitt in the lead role merits a thumbs up for me. The acting was so restrained that he did not feel like he was acting. He was really that very cool and collected guy whose heart rate never went over 80 bpm. He managed to still be very believable as a person, even if he's had some pretty incredible luck that had flawed scientific basis. I felt sincerity in the way he was narrating his story and sharing the lessons he had learned from tragedies he met all along the way.

Tommy Lee Jones played Capt. Roy's lost father who may or may not be alive, who may or may not be a hero. Ruth Nega played Helen Lantos, director of the underground facility in Mars. This once Oscar nominee (for "Loving") had an interesting character key in Roy's discovery of the truth. Liv Tyler (whom I did not recognize) played Roy's estranged wife Eve, frustrated with how he spent more time at work than on her. Donald Sutherland played Clifford's old friend Col. Pruitt, whose part could have been edited out with no consequence.

I cannot ignore some obvious scientific impossibilities in the film. I believe that science fiction should still somehow obey scientific laws. How can a human stowaway survive if he was still climbing up the ship right beside the rocket boosters all fired up at launch time? A person was working on a station beyond the atmosphere and fell all the way down to earth, but he survived thanks to a parachute within his space suit? Can an explosion in Neptune really launch a spaceship low in fuel all the way back to Earth?

Under all of the dazzling cinematography (by Hoyte van Hoytema), thoughtful musical score (by Max Richter) and spectacular outer space special effects and , writer-director James Gray was actually just telling a story about a son's valiant effort to reconnect with his estranged father. In this case though, this particular son's efforts bring him all the way to the icy-rocky rings of Neptune where his father's space station had been stalled all these years. I must admit the simplicity of the core story was a bit of a letdown for me, even if they sugarcoat generously with sentimental life philosophies. 7/10.

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Review of RAMBO: LAST BLOOD: Rabid Revenge

by Admin - 18:50

September 24, 2019

Rambo is an iconic film character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the film "First Blood" (Ted Kotcheff, 1982). He was an American soldier who trained in the US Army Special Forces. He became a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, but he was able to escape. Back in the US, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and became a homeless drifter. There he caught the attention and ire of yokel authorities, which caused Rambo use his combat skills to retaliate.

For that auspicious film film, Rambo became a film franchise spawning a number of sequels (in 1985, 1988 and 2008). This current film "Rambo: Last Blood" (in a rather cheesy reference to the title of the original film) is the fifth of the series.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is now back working in his father's horse ranch in Arizona, where he lived with housekeeper Maria Beltran (Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza) and her granddaughter Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal). Against everyone's advice, Gabrielle went off by herself across the border to Mexico to locate and confront her estranged father Miguel.

Unfortunately, after being rejected by her father, she was abducted for human trafficking by the mericless Martinez brothers (Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Hugo, and Óscar Jaenada as Victor) and their gang. When Rambo got wind of this news from Mexican journalist Carmen (Paz Vega), he stopped at nothing to get Gabrielle back.

This Rambo barely had anything to do with his experiences in Southeast Asia at all, maybe except for his background in guerrilla warfare. At least the first sequels still had scenes in Vietnam (in "Rambo 2"), Thailand (in "Rambo 3") and Myanmar (in "Rambo 4"). But this current one just shuttled back and forth from Arizona to Mexico in a by-numbers generic rescue-revenge story we had already seen countless times in forgettable B-grade action films, several of which actually starred Stallone.

At the start, Stallone's Rambo had already mellowed down with age and contentment. However, when someone he valued got into danger, he just had to go out there in Mexico's wild wild west, and rescue her all by himself. Stallone can practically do these projects blindfolded already. He's got his droopy sad eyes going during the quiet dramatic scenes of loss, and his angry game face during the violent action scenes. Stallone was the only non-Latino in this film, and with all those Mexicans he massacred single-handedly, this could be seen as a strong political statement for those with a certain mindset.

After the slow build-up, the much-awaited "Rambo-style" action scenes only began in the last 20 minutes of the film. And wow, did Stallone and director Adrian Grunberg go all the way out for them! His trusty survival knives would not be missing in action as they (along with various other traditional or improvised weapons) were used numerous times to impale, maim, dismember, behead and eviscerate various human targets. Fiery explosive booby traps and a labyrinth of caves under his father's ranch were also there to rack the excitement level up several notches.

While some may decry this part over being too over-the-top with slasher-type gore, they can definitely satiate the bloodlust of Rambo's rabid fans. 4/10.

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PPP 2019: Review of WATCH ME KILL: Ultimate Unraveling

by Admin - 10:12

September 20, 2019

Ruthless assassin Luciana was hired by crime lord Franco (Jay Manalo) to kill an old man (Rodolfo Muyuela) who found a valuable diamond. After finishing him off and securing the gem, Luciana also took home with her the young girl Lourdes who was riding the old man's jeep. One day, Franco suspected Luciana of double-crossing him and ordered his men to execute her. Luciana was not going to be that easy to kill.

This film had just won three awards in the recently concluded Pista ng Peilikulang Pilipino 2019. Its biggest prize is that of Best Director for Tyrone Acierto. Being a US-educated and US-based filmmaker, Acierto was able to recruit American film colleagues to work with him in "Watch Me Kill." Two of them (Marcin Ski and Colorado Rutledge) likewise went home with awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing respectively.

It was interesting to see how their American sensibilities told a Filipino story. The entire sequence of that old man and his search for that diamond in a desolate location played like an American Western in its look and feel. That vibe continued when Luciana went on a killing spree on that dusty desert road. Even the music in those scenes sounded like the score heard in Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns.

By playing a ruthless assassin in "Watch Me Kill," Jean Garcia adds action star to her diverse resume as an actress. She was a cool and calculated killer. However, when Lourdes came into the picture, Luciana could not seem to just abandon the young girl. She was also haunted by her traumatic past which molded her into the hardened woman she was now, and this sort of character drama is right down Garcia's alley.

Fresh from her Cinemalaya film "Children of the River," child actress Junyka Santarin got to showcase more of her thespic skills as Lourdes. The presence of this girl radically affected Luciana and her spare lifestyle, and it was up to Santarin to show us why Luciana was so drawn to her. The background and behavior of Lourdes was the biggest question mark in the film and the polarizing answer would not be forthcoming until the very end.

Acierto won a Best Director prize for his first feature film "The Grave Bandits" in the Metro Manila Filmfest New Breed category back in 2012. "Watch Me Kill" is his second feature film, and again he won Best Director, a perfect two for two record, a director to look out for in the future. However, I was not surprised that it did not win Best Picture. While the technical aspects of this film were unquestionably topnotch, there were still some puzzling aspects of Luciana's unraveling which could have been better told or developed or cleared up. 7/10.

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VibesHub

Recap of INTERNAL MEDICINE FILM FESTIVAL 2019 of SLMC-GC: Artful Advocacies

YouTube: Review of 12 DAYS TO DESTINY: Bonding over Balut

Review of #JOWABLE: Distressingly Desperate

Review of DOWNTON ABBEY: Anxious Aristocrats

Review of HUSTLERS: Victimized by Vamps

Review of AD ASTRA: Facing Father and Future

Review of RAMBO: LAST BLOOD: Rabid Revenge

PPP 2019: Review of WATCH ME KILL: Ultimate Unraveling

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